What is happening now in Egyptian society is a regrettable matter that we have not seen before, whether in social, political or even religious circles. Some people tend to track the mistakes of others and publish them without verification, just to expose and defame them. Therefore, more liars, conspirators, and ignorant people claiming knowledge appeared. Many people talk about faith, but never knew God, and many are claiming knowledge, but never read a book.
Electronic teams and committees have appeared, hunting for the mistakes of honorable people and contaminating their reputations. Pages appeared criticizing a thought that they had not read anything about. Those ignorant people don t hesitate to accuse those who contradict their negligence of blasphemy, heresy and innovation. They imagine that they possess the absolute truth. No one can claim this, for the absolute truth is God and owned by God. As for me and you, our thoughts may be right or wrong. In our society, we may have different ideology, beliefs, orientations or goals, but we need to be united on our humanity, our patriotism, our peaceful coexistence, and our respect for each other.
We can see conflict and rivalry in every direction in society, between politicians, between people of religions, between spiritual leaders of one church. An electronic war may begin by just a Muslim s mercy on a deceased Christian, and you suddenly find yourself facing clash between religions. I remember one day when I was at a celebration for Arab Americans in Southern California, while I was passing between the tents set up to sell Arab souvenirs and clothes and the people who gave me a Bible as a free gift. Immediately after that I found someone who gives me the Qur an as a free gift and I rejoiced in this upscale scene and said to myself this is true freedom and an example for our children to respect the other. However, my joy did not last long. In the middle of the day, I was surprised by the sounds of police cars interfering with the sounds of a quarrel with hands and tongues between a group of Arabs due to the fact that some Christians and Muslims found a group of Bibles and Qur ans thrown in the trash. The police forbade the sale of these books and asked the quarrels to reconcile, otherwise they would be arrested. People tend to reject one another instead of showing love, peaceful coexistence, and understanding.
Several decades ago, the deceased Pope Shenouda III demanded President Sadat and the Sheikh of Al-Azhar to prepare a curricula on peaceful religion rules of Islam and Christianity to be educated in Egyptian schools. They were welcomed, but soon ignored to leave its place for extremism. I hope we wakeup before it is too late.
